Conventional dishwashers normally include two racks configured to support items to be washed, such as dishes, glasses, bowls, cooking utensils, and the like. Typically, an upper rack is disposed close to the top of the washing chamber and is used to hold glasses, cups, bowls, and other relatively smaller items. The lower rack is positioned near the bottom of the chamber at a considerable distance below the upper rack to provide vertical clearance for larger items, such as dishes and platters, to be placed on edge, and to hold preparation bowls and pots in an up-side-down orientation. Each rack normally is supplied with an array of spaced apart, generally vertical tines or fingers that support and separate the individual items. The optimum spacing between adjacent tines for supporting thin items like dishes is much less than for supporting thick items like mixing bowls and pans. Thus any fixed array of tines is less than optimum for all possible combinations of items to be washed.
There have been numerous suggestions for arrangements to provide adjustable tines in a rack assembly for user flexibility. Reference is made, for example, to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,126,098; 3,269,548;3,402,975; 3,752,322; 4,046,261; 4,606,464; and 5,351,837.
The industry is continuously seeking improvements in rack assemblies that provide consumers with ease of adjustment of tines. The present invention relates to such improvements.